Jing Province

The Battle of Jing Province (荊州の戦い, rōmaji: Keishū no Tatakai), also known as the Battle of Jing, refers to a series of conflicts fought for the domination of the southern province. It was one of the Nine Provinces, or one of the nine classic divisions, of China at the time. Each kingdom sought to control it completely for strategic value.

After, Cao Cao's defeat at the Battle of Chibi, and withdrawal from most of the province. Liu Bei and Sun Quan claimed two large sections of the province for themselves, splitting the province into three prominent sections.

During Guan Yu's absence due to Fan Castle, Lu Meng launched an invasion to take the province, and succeeded in doing so; Later, Liu Bei was defeated in Yiling, and Shu lost their foothold in the area and Jing Province was held in contention between Wei and Wu.

In the games, the time at which a singular battle takes place varies on the title while Lu Meng's campaign is partially merged with the battle at Fan Castle.

Role in Games

"And thus, the time for quietly watching has past. We must retake the Jing Province."

―Lu Xun; Dynasty Warriors 6

Dynasty Warriors

There are two distinct scenarios for the province in Dynasty Warriors 4. During Wu's story, players can participate in this battle as a special stage if they choose to unify Jiang Dong first in chapter 3. Sun Jian will then face all four adversaries in Jing at once, including generals such as Liu Yong and Yan Baihu. Doing so will allow his family to claim the land for themselves.

After Chi Bi, Liu Bei can charge here to defeat the four regional lords. If players choose to defeat Huang Zhong first, Wei Yan will kill the enemy commander to save the elder and they will join Shu.

In Dynasty Warriors Vol. 2, the stage appears as the "Annexation of Jing". In this scenario, Sun Quan attempts to conquer Jing province by defeating the four different warlords of the area. Each warlord also has their own strategy to deal with the Wu troops such as floods, fire attacks, rockslides and ambushes. Once most of the warlords are defeated, Liu Bei and Pang Tong will appear north of the Wu main camp to stake their claim for the province. Defeating either Liu Bei or the four warlords at the map's corners will end the stage.

In Dynasty Warriors 6, the battle takes place after Shu takes Jing province forcefully away from Wu and use it as the foothold of their kingdom. Shu badly wants to protect Jing, while Wu, the former owner of Jing, has decided to retake the Jing province. In Lu Bu's scenario, he and Diao Chan try to stop the combined forces of Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei from taking the Imperial Seal out of Lu Bu's possession. Sun Jian's Musou story has him fend off Liu Bei’s army which had been sent Cao Cao to capture the Imperial Seal from him.

Dynasty Warriors 8 has the stage playable only on Wu's story. In the stage Guan Yu seizes the territory after Wu's hard-fought victory at Nanjun. If Lu Su makes it into the castle quickly, he can survive his illness. If the pincer attacks at Nanjun were successful, then Zhou Yu will also be present to aid the Wu forces.

In Dynasty Warriors 9, this appears in chapter 7 for most Shu characters. The player is instructed to seize at least two of the four garrisons in southern Jing and report back to Pang Tong when they are done. The player is greeted with a host of side missions to make capturing each fort easier. Jin Xuan's is the nearest and can be weakened by transporting supplies to Zhang Fei per Xiahou Ji's request, or helping Gong Zhi get rid of bandits and thus allowing his ambush troops to withdraw. Xing Daorong can be weakened by negotiating with Liu Du and getting rid of his assault units in the mountain. Zhao Fan can be weakened by getting rid of Chen Ying's reinforcements and Bao Long's archers. And lastly, Han Xuan can be made easier to defeat by having him lose trust in both Huang Zhong and Wei Yan causing their defection. The player is open to capture any garrison in any order, and the battle does not finish until they make their report to Pang Tong and Liu Bei.

Zhou Yu receives a DLC scenario where he is ordered to capture Nanjun but it shares the same area as Shu's version of capturing Southern Jing. He can start by rescuing Sun Quan from Wei Yan's ambush early on, causing Han Xuan to get flustered. Meanwhile, elsewhere the lords of Jing are struggling to hold off Shu with Liu Bei having a firm grip on Wuling. Lingling is in contention between Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Liu Du as well as their subordinate generals, Guiyang is also in contention between Zhao Yun, Zhou Cang and Zhao Fan. Changsha remains the sole property of Han Xuan but Huang Zhong and Wei Yan do not defect under circumstances here. Extra missions may become available when sneak attack units led by Guan Ping target a garrison depending on the player's actions. Once Jing has been seized, Zhou Yu turns his attention to Cao Cao in the coming battles.

Historical Information

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Jingzhou was considered as one of the main deciding factors to supremacy. After Cao Cao was defeated at Chibi and could only maintain the northern portion of the province, the rest of the province was held in high contention between Liu Bei and Sun Quan.

After Liu Bei departed from Jingzhou and took Yizhou from Liu Zhang, Sun Quan made requests for Liu's forces to finally cede the loaned cities back to Wu. Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei both agreed to this and prepared a letter for Guan Yu, who was left to guard Liu's portion of the province. Guan, however, denied entry to the officials sent by Wu and refused to follow the promise to return the cities to Sun Quan. Since then, Sun was infuriated by Guan Yu's insolence, but held back due to the potential of Cao Cao attacking him while he left for Jingzhou.

Before the battle of Fancheng, Guan Yu set up brazier towers across the province to inform one another if an enemy arrived and was confident in both this system and Pan Jun's competency despite Wang Fu's warnings. As Guan Yu had flooded the seven armies of Wei, Sun Quan consulted his advisors on what to do next. On their advice, Sun Quan decided to send a messenger with a request of marriage between his son and Guan Yu's daughter. If Guan accepted, then Sun Quan would aid in the assault, but if it was declined, Sun would have his excuse to attack Jing on Cao Cao's behalf. When the messenger gave the message, Guan Yu flew into rage at the request, chased him out and insulted Sun Quan. Upon hearing Guan Yu's reply, Sun ordered Lu Meng to begin preparations to invade Jing.

Lu, however, saw that the brazier towers were a flawless system and was unable to think of a plan to properly deal with it without attracting attention. Deeply perplexed, Lu confided himself in his residence and put himself into a stupor under the guise of sickness. Lu Meng's aide, Lu Xun was consulted by their lord, who was deeply concerned for Lu Meng's health. Lu Xun, however, replied that Lu Meng was only faking his illness, and a cure had already been in place. Meeting Lu Meng, Lu Xun announced that he had the cure the elder man was looking for.

In order to get through Jingzhou's security, Lu Xun devised a plan that disguised the Wu soldiers as traveling merchants. The ships would be able to slip through security, and would easily take the lightly defended cities. Overjoyed, Lu Meng first passed his governorship of Lukou to Lu Xun to begin making preparations for the invasion. Lu Xun would then send multiple passive letters to Guan Yu in order to keep him in a false sense of security and to give him the impression that the young man was highly inexperienced and fearful of the bearded general.

In conjunction with the preparations of the second set of Wei reinforcements being sent to Fancheng, Lu Meng began his attack on Jing. With his ships getting through the brazier towers, Lu Meng's soldiers armed themselves upon setting shore and overwhelmed Pan Jun. As quickly as they came, Pan Jun surrendered most of the province to the invaders. Sun Quan then sent a messenger to Cao Cao's forces before deliberating on how to capture Gong'an and Nanjun, the last cities under Guan's control. Yu Fan volunteered to speak with Fu Shiren, and managed to get him to surrender. Fu Shiren would then kill Guan Yu's messenger in front of Mi Fang in order to force him to surrender. With the surrender of both Gong'an and Nanjun, Sun Quan finally reclaimed all the lost territory in Jingzhou. This move would also spell the beginning of the end for Guan Yu.